Mithun On The NetPersonal website of Mithun Divakaran, a guy you may or may not know — or like.

Kerala

Done with my Philippines series, I had no other trip report to write about after that. Being in Kannur, I had always wanted to go to Bekal Fort in Kasarkode district, north of Kannur. Bekal Fort is the largest fort in Kerala. I had vague memories of visiting the fort when I was very young… but my mom insists I had never been there. She say it must have been St. Angelo’s Fort I got confused with and said she herself has never been to Bekal Fort!

So on a fine Sunday morning, we went to Kannur’s ‘private bus stand’. We chose to go by bus thinking it would be easy to get one as Bekal was only 90kms away. The route on Google Maps showed one long road up north and it would take no less than 2 hours. Trouble is, there was some railway crossing repair work going on along the way and because of that, the route buses would be taking today would be longer. But we were only told of this while we waited for the bus to arrive. We (myself, my mother and my cousin brother) contemplated going by train but because we wasted more than half-an-hour waiting for the bus, we missed the trains going north. Finally we boarded a bus going to Kanhangad as we were told we could catch another bus going to Bekal Fort, or Pallikere (the place), from there. So at 9:45 am, the bus finally left Kannur ‘private bus stand’ and we began our long journey to Bekal.

A bus ticket to Kanhangad costs Rs. 50 ($0.80/€0.60) per person.

One of the reasons why I wanted to go by bus is to the see the places along the way. While coming back we decided to take the train for a different view.

There were quite a few timber, wood and tile factories along the way

The bus filled up with passengers after picking up more people from the municipal bus stations along the way. It was a good thing we got seats.

We would pass many farms along the way

And a few churches

As I looked at the time, I realized we would only arrive at Bekal Fort past noon. I was disappointed knowing I would miss the morning blue skies and would instead be shooting during the dreaded 11am-1pm time slot — the period during which the sun is at its brightest and washes out all the blues in the sky in photographs.

Still, I enjoyed the sights along the way

I also realized how sparsely populated and barren Kannur district is outside of Kannur town

Past noon, we had reached Kanhagad. From there, we saw a bus with Bekal Fort written on it (in English) and so we knew that was our next bus. We boarded it (Rs. 10 for ticket) and it was another 30 minutes until we reached the road leading to Bekal Fort.

From here it was just a short walk to the fort

Good parking space for cars right outside the fort

Finally we were at Bekal fort!

Instructions

This was the Mukhyaprana Temple

Tickets cost Rs. 5 for Indian citizens and Rs. 100 for foreigners. I don’t agree with this sort of dual-pricing, but it’s what it is. Archeological Society of India (ASI) should raise it to at least Rs. 10 for us. Rs. 5 is too low. Every Indian can afford Rs. 10!

I could already see how big Bekal fort was

And I was also pleased with how clean and well kept it was

This was an observation tower. I just had to climb it to see what the views from up there were like.

They have a CCTV installed up here

I took a panorama but oddly the camera wouldn’t focus

The ‘black’ you see below is because they burnt the dry grass

Another panorama. That’s Bekal beach in the distance.

Through the rocks

Another panorama

Unlike St. Angelo’s Fort in Kannur, which was built by the Dutch, Bekal Fort was built in 1650AD by Shivappa Nayaka, an Indian ruler. You may read about the fort’s history on Wikipedia.

A panorama of the other side

That’s the entrance

We went back down

That’s my mother

This is what they were looking down at

We walked along the outer wall

I wanted to get to that beach

This was the way to get down below

You have to go down a few (large) steps

From the extension. Bekal Fort was the setting for the song “Uyire” from Bombay.

There was a sign saying not to enter the beach or the water. I’m assuming it was largely because there is no one to watch over you if something were to go wrong.

You have beaches on either side of Bekal fort

A view from back up the fort

There was little else to see

We were making our way back to the entrance

The final panorama

One photo of ourselves

… and we were out. It was 2pm and we were hungry. There weren’t any restaurants to be found outside Bekal Fort, so we had to eat from the closest resort.

Nirvana Resort is the nearest hotel to Bekal Fort. Like, right outside the fort — that near! We didn’t find any other restaurant nearby so we just ate here. The food was nothing special and not really worth how much they were charging, but you don’t have any choice.

We then left Bekal fort and figured how to get to the beach

We walked down a small village path

That led us just outside the fence bordering Bekal Fort

My cousin isn’t peeing, just keeping the phone back in his pocket :-)

The path we took was far from the right way to get to the beach, but it’s a shortcut

Finally… time to walk barefoot!

The beach was filled with small green shells

Goodbye Bekal fort

Pretty big beach

Blademon, which literally translates to “blade son”. Okay Blademon :)

Funny, both the boat and the airline have a chance of sinking

Fishing boats have registration numbers much like vehicles have license numbers

When we reached Bekal Beach Park, a security guard ran towards us and told even if we walk across on the beach without even entering the park, we still need to pay Rs. 10 per person.

Rs. 10 to enter a state-run park? Hmmm.

Camel rides in Kerala

There’s a “zoo” but that costs extra and it was largely domestic animals, so we just walked away. Instead my mom bought us “kids” some cone ice cream.

When I went to use the park’s toilet, even there they were charging Rs. 5 for using it! So Rs. 10 is for you to walk in the vicinity. Rubbish! And so was the condition the toilets were in going by how much they were charging.

Anyway, we asked the security guard how to get to Kanhangad railway station and he gave us the directions to the main road from where we could board the bus.

We crossed a railway track

And got a bus going to Kanhangad town

When we arrived at the town bus stand, we crossed over to the other side to get to the railway station. The next train to Kannur was only at 5:20pm, but we had no choice. We bought three tickets (Rs. 50 per person for General class) and went out to drink some chai.

We sat at Kanhangad railway station platform for an hour

The Mangalore -> Chennai Express train arrived at 5:20pm… with a few extra minutes added to it

It was crowded inside the general compartment, as expected, but I had no issues standing because I wanted to take photos.

The sights along the journey were largely that of village life and paddy fields…

… and a lot of football being played on the now dry paddy fields

North Kerala (Malabar) has a long history with Islam

Me and my cousin stood by the door to make sure I could get photos of the sunset

That’s a houseboat in the distance. Quite the glorious way to catch the sun set.

This train would only stop briefly at two stations before stopping at Kannur

Beautiful Kerala

The sun had set by the time we crossed the river you see in the very first photo above

The train reached Kannur station a few minutes before 7pm. After helping a French tourist who was in the same train with some travel advice, we all left the station.

Overall, the trip was good and I’m quite pleased with the photos I got using only my Sony Xperia Z1 phone camera. This is the first trip taking photos only using my phone and I am now confident that even if I don’t have my DSLR, the photos I get from my phone would still serve me fine.

But a bit of advice, if you wish to visit Bekal Fort from either Kannur or any other cities south of Kerala, just take the train. The buses aren’t as frequent as I thought they would be and it takes longer depending on the time of the day. The ticket rates are the same anyway and although you may not get a seat in some of the general class trains, you get to Kasragod district a lot quicker. Also, try and get to the fort by 9am or post lunch so you can watch the sun set from Bekal Fort itself.

Kannur may have St. Angelo’s Fort but trust me, Bekal Fort is a lot bigger and well worth the views.

This is the last post from my travel archives. After all the posts I’ve written about my travels within India and abroad, it’s only befitting I write about my hometown. Although I was raised in Bahrain (16 years) and worked in Bangalore (8 years), I am a native of Kannur (named Cannanore by the Colonial British) in Kerala.

And although it’s one of the largest districts in Kerala by area, Kannur does not offer too much in terms of sights or attractions compared to say, Cochin, with it’s more globally marketable Jew Town and easy access to Kerala’s other famous places. That said, I’m still going to showcase whatever I can from my past visits to Kannur. Or at least the places I’ve visited anyway.